CLEMSON – Jessica Hoang was overcome with emotion when she realized that the Clemson women’s golf team had won last week’s UCF Challenge.

It was the first time Hoang, who has been on the team since its first season of competition, ever got to hoist a tournament championship trophy with her Clemson teammates.

"I actually got very emotional when we found out that we won," Hoang said. "It was a big turnaround from where we’ve started."

Clemson shot 14-under-par at last week’s tournament in Orlando, Florida, tying Miami for first place. Because Clemson’s fifth player had a better score on the final day of the tournament than Miami’s fifth player, the Tigers were awarded the championship trophy.

It was the first tournament win in the four-year history of the Clemson women’s golf program.

Alice Hewson, who led Clemson to victory by shooting 7-under for the three-day tournament, described the moment as “incredible.” Hoang, the lone senior in last week’s tournament lineup, said it was an achievement of her biggest goal.

"I’ve wanted this so badly for our team," Hoang said. "An individual win would have been great, too, but a team win with everyone that I’ve known for a long time is even better."

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The Tigers, Hewson said, were sick of hearing about how they have never won a tournament. Now that they have that weight off their shoulders, the team feels less pressure.

"I feel like there’s more confidence that we can win again," Hoang said. "Since we’ve finally won a tournament, now we can win the next one and feel more confident in going after it."

While Clemson didn’t win any tournaments during the fall season, the Tigers feel the progress they made during that semester led to winning their first tournament of the spring season.

"We’re in a very different place than we were in the beginning," Hewson said. "I think we’ve really come together, we’re all really close, and we just all enjoy being with each other."

First-year coach Kelley Hester said she has seen the team become more focused since she arrived at Clemson in July.

"My goal was just to try to keep them focused on what I think is important for them to be successful, and sort of clear all the clutter and the garbage and drama, and they’ve done a great job with that," Hester said. "They’ve literally done everything that Heather (Bowie Young, assistant coach) and I have asked of them, so I’m very proud of them for being open to a little bit different way of doing things."

Clemson, which currently is ranked 41st among Division I women’s golf programs by Golfstat, will look to continue its winning ways next week at the Sugar Bowl Golf Championship in New Orleans, Louisiana, which begins Sunday and culminates Tuesday.

The Tigers are set to host some of the top teams in the nation later this season at the Clemson Invitational, which will be held at The Reserve at Lake Keowee in Sunset from March 31 through April 2. Their ultimate goal, though, is to compete for wins in the postseason, which begins in April with the ACC Championship and continues in May with NCAA regionals.

Hester hasn’t set any specific goals for what the team should accomplish in the postseason, but she believes the Tigers are headed in the right direction.

"We’ve already shown that we can shoot 14-under in a golf tournament and win," Hester said. "So we’re just going to keep trying to get better every day and work on the little things. If you do the little things right, they normally can add up to big things, so that’s what we’ll do."